Working with the Fuji XT1

I was able to work with the Fuji XT 1 for a couple of weeks now on a couple of assignments and want to share some of my impressions here. This will not be yet another review of this camera. There are already enough around.

I am focusing on my personal experience in my professional context.

Where I come from

About two years ago, I made the switch from convetional DSFRs (Nikon) to mirrorless cameras. Weight of gear and mobility became more and more an issue. I met Steve Huff briefly an event I was assigned to photograph. He was there to photograph Seal’s live performance. Steve shot a combination of Leica and Sony. After that event I started to investigate a move to mirrorless. I looked at Leica as one option, cost and the system’s limitations ruled that out.
Eventually, I decided to buy into the Sony Nex system. For a while I worked with Nikon and Sony simultaneously. When I realised that I used the Sony for 90% of my work, I committed to the switch.
Sony’s cameras are great, the sensors fantastic (and Nikon uses Sony sensors in their cameras), but they lack a selection of great lenses.

Upgrade

After I learnt to work with the limitation of Sony glass (using also 3rd party lenses, such as Contax and Canon FD), it was time for a camera upgrade. For a while, I was seriously researching the Sony A7 and Sony A7r cameras. Great cameras, but again there was a serious back with good lenses.

In the meantime I bought myself a Fuji X100s have been using it alongside my other cameras and have been enjoying it’s elegance, image quality and traditional controls.

This year, Fuji announced the Fuji XT 1 and remedied a lot of the issues the Xpro 1 had.
Fuji always offered a decent selection of great lenses. Of all the reviews I read (and I read quite a few) there was not a single negative one.
The XT 1 received similar positive reviews and I made the decision to go for the system. I was very happy with the result I got from the X100s so far and

Fuji XT 1 with 56/1.2 at the Forever 21 launch in Cape Town

would expect the same from the XT 1.

My setup

I am using the Fuji XT 1, the Fuji X100s, the 56/1.2, the 18-55/2.8-4 and the 55-200/3.4-4.8. The 35/1.4 is arriving hopefully very soon.

My bag, the Thinktankphoto Essential arrived last week and I bought based of Zack Arias experience with it. So far, I am happy with the bag and it’s capacity to cater for my assignments and very importantly keeps me organised.

Assignments

I used the camera at almost the full range of my work, including corporate events, portraits, product photography and also some landscape photography.

During one of the product shots the camera acted up and produced a mysterious green colour shift in a few images. Switching off the camera and removing battery and restarting the camera resolved the issue. This was a once off error and I wasn’t able to reproduce it again.

It took me a while and a Google search to setup the camera for studio work. If you don’t do this, you will only see a black screen as the images are underexposesd as the main lighting comes from strobes.

The viewfinder displays now a correctly exposed image in manual mode regardless of the level over- and underexposure. This does not affect Program mode or semi-automatic settings such as aperture priority and shutter priority. Just remember to change the setting, when you work in full manual mode outside your studio and want to see the effects of the exposure.

For my portrait work, I fell in love with the face recognition option for focusing. Once the camera identifies a faces, it locks the autofocus on the nearest eye. This is incredible useful when you shoot with the 56/1.2 wide open and increases the number of shots with eyes in focus.

External manual controls

I love the manual control rings. You can change shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, drive control and metering without switching on the camera. Having said that, I experienced the drive control and metering ring to change to easily, especially during events when I move the camera a lot. Overall, this all fashioned look is simply practical. You can fine tune aperture and shutter speed with the command dials.

Lenses

The lenses are solid, sharp, and even the kit lens is more than just usable. It is very good. My favourite is the 56/1.2, though and not only for portrait work. Image stabilisation would be an interesting add on, but other than that, I love the bokeh, sharpness and contrast of that lens. the 55-200/3.4-4.8 performs very well, even though it doesn’t have a constant aperture. In my Nikon days, I used to shoot with the 80-200/2.8 a lot, but learnt in recent years not to rely too much on longer than 135 mm focal lengths. The range is a nice to have and image stabilisation is a bonus for the Fuji lens.

For the time being, I am happy to use the Fuji X100s for the 23mm focal length. The sensor is the same as in the Fuji XT01 and the lens is outstanding. The 14mm and the 23mm might find their way into my photo bag at some stage next year.

Product Photography

What is missing?

Fuji speedlites are not the greatest and don’t have yet the level of sophistication that I got used to with the Nikon SB lights. Hopefully, that is only a question of time. I still use the Nikon strobes in manual mode for some of my assignments. Autofocus could be faster at times, but I hardly ever had issues with that.

Other than that, I am pretty happy and with the handling of the camera and the professional image results the camera produces.